[Jacob-list] NEWBORN LAMBS

[Debbie Bennett]

I had a set of twin ewes born last year, one with a wavy curl to her 
fleece and the other had tight curls with hair. The hair shed out over 
the first six months and she now has a beautiful, open fleece with no 
defined crimp (the "perfect" Jacob fleece).
The one with the wavy curl at birth has a wavy fleece just like her 
mothers'. I micron tested the mother's fleece - at six years old, an 
average of 32 microns with a 4.5 deviation. This is a coarser fleece, 
but the handle is great (feels softer than some of my finer fleeces) and 
is a dream to spin - open, defined crimp; for you spinners, it looks 
like a less greasy, more open Romney fleece.
As a spinner, I tend to choose individual fleeces for specific projects 
by the characteristics of the fleece. The "mother's" fleece mentioned 
above will become a ski sweater for my son. I spun and wove fabric for a 
vest by choosing a very fine Jacob wool with no defined crimp. The 
character of this wool, allowed me to spin a fine two ply yarn and weave 
it to achieve a soft, drapey fabric. I have customers who call and ask 
for specific fleeces year after year or who call and ask for certain 
characteristics (three lighter fleeces for a spinning/dyeing project, or 
2 coarser fleeces for a felting project, etc).
As I skirt my fleeces, I set aside the ones that will be shown at Fairs 
and ones I want to work with personally. The "average" fleeces get 
sorted by color and I send them out for processing.
I enjoy the diversity of the fleeces as well as personalities within my 
flock. I cull lambs with quilted fleeces or freckling (although I sold a 
freckled lamb last year to a spinner's flock) or a two year old (baby 
fleeces change) with a coarse handle to the fleece.
Debbie Bennett
Feral Fibre
Oakland, Oregon
On Wednesday, April 3, 2002, at 03:49 AM, Linda wrote:

> I have been quite pleasantly surprised by the lambs that appeared to 
> have a straight fleece at birth.  A sample at six months to a year 
> often shows a straight tip (about 1" or so) and a lovely, open, soft 
> and bouncy fleece closer to the skin.  I think if you will look at the 
> scan of fleece samples that JSBA sent out, you will see that many nice 
> Jacob fleece locks do have a straight tip.
> You know how I like pictures! so I've tried to scan a lock to 
> illustrate.  This is from a culled yearling ram.  Almost 2 " of the tip 
> is pretty straight with no elasticity at all.  That was his birth 
> coat.  The next three inches are elastic and soft.  Note:  I am not 
> putting this up as an example of a good or bad Jacob fleece.  I just 
> thought it illustrated how the fleece can change in that first year.
>  
> http://www.patchworkfibers.com/lock.jpg
>  
>  
> Anyone else want to scan and share a lock?
>  
> I have also been rather unpleasantly surprised to see the tight birth 
> fleece develop into a well structured, but coarse feeling fleece or 
> into a meat sheep type fleece.  Certainly, that type of birth coat 
> usually turns out wonderfully, but not always. That tightly curled even 
> birth fleece is just what our suffolk cross lambs sported. 
>  
> I have never had a lamb that was born with a curly wool coat with a 
> hair halo that did not lose the hair halo.    We used a hair x ram when 
> we had crossbreds and the hairy coat we sometimes got was very 
> different, not at all like the halo.
>  
> I'm not much for making quick judgements on my lambs.  You can be 
> pleasantly surprised as often as disappointed.
>  
> Linda
>  
>  
>  
>  
> On Tue, 2 Apr 2002 07:11:11 -0800 (PST), CARL FOSBRINK wrote:
> >HELLO EVERYONE,
> >
> >Well my lambing is over. Had 15 ewes lamb in 12 days. The new lambs
> >all have one of two kinds of coat. One is a tight curl and the other
> >is a long wavy hair. Sometimes in a set of twins one lamb will have
> >the one type and the other lamb the other type. I suspect the tiight
> >curl will be crimpy wool at maturity and the long wavy hair will be
> >a straighter courser wool with a more definite black and white
> >spotting, but I would like to hear the opinions of those listers who
> >are more into wool.
> >
> >Thanks,
> >
> >
> >Carl
> >
> >
> >
> >Do You Yahoo!?
> >Yahoo! Tax Center - online filing with TurboTax
>  
>  
> Visit our first lambs of 2002!
> http://www.patchworkfibers.com/lambs2002.html
> Registered Jacob Sheep
> Handspun Yarns
>  
>  
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